Back in May, I drew attention to the remarkable fact that food-industry workers are literally dying from exposure to a key ingredient in microwave popcorn.
The food additive diacetyl (responsible for that "buttery note" in nuked popcorn and also in margarine) emits a noxious fume when heated up -- one that can literally destroy people's lungs in high concentrations. Exposure to diacetyl has been decisively linked to a condition known with chilling accuracy as "bronchiolitis obliterans" -- an irreversible lung disease usually found only in survivors of serious fires.
In that post, I wondered whether consumers of microwave popcorn -- as well as home cooks who sauté with margarine -- might be exposing themselves to serious lung damage, too. Turns out, they may well be -- and federal agencies don't seem to give an unpopped corn kernel about it.
Over on the excellent public-health blog The Pump Handle, David Michaels, a professor at George Washington University, head of the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy, and a former Clinton Administration public-health official to boot, points to a recent case of bronchiolitis obliterans found in a patient who ate microwave popcorn daily.
The patient's doctor, Cecile Rose of the prestigious National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Colorado, issued a blunt letter describing the case, dated July 18, to all the big national public-health agencies -- the CDC, FDA, OSHA, EPA. Their response, according to Michaels: dead silence.
Concludes Michaels:
It appears that the Bush Administration's efforts to destroy the regulatory system are succeeding; the agencies seem unable to mount a response to information that a well-functioning regulatory system would immediately pursue. The agencies aren't even trying to connect the dots.
Meanwhile, Liz Borkowski, a colleague of Michaels' at the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy, tells me that the group has tried to get the EPA to release results of its study on popcorn-related diacetyl emissions, even issuing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The result? Dithering. "They did send us a lot of documents in response to our FOIA request, but classified the study itself as a nonreleasable record," Borkowski wrote me in an email.
While the EPA cravenly hides the study from the public, it has released it to the microwave popcorn industry, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently reported.
The results must have been scary. One major maker, Pop Weaver, has removed diacetyl from its product, citing the EPA study as the reason, the Post-Intelligencer reports.
Others, however, have chosen to continue exposing workers and consumers to diacetyl. As the Post-Intelligencer makes clear, the additive "remains in widespread use in thousands of consumer products, including the microwave popcorn brands Orville Redenbacher and Act II."
Thanks to Liz Borkowski for alerting me to this story, and to the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy for trying to convince public-health agencies that their real constituency is the public, not the food industry.
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Comments
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Delay And Deny Posted 11:17 am
04 Sep 2007
Instead of sitting around in the lunchroom inhaling popcorn fumes, the employees should be outside in the smokers area...25 feet from the building...getting some fresh air and sunshine...and dragging down on an American Spirit.
Hey, apparently it's healthier for you!
John Bailo
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willa Posted 11:55 pm
04 Sep 2007
One potential upside I can see to this outrageous disregard for health and safety: When people find out about said disregard, they will be shocked--I know I am, because I didn't think this kind of thing could happen anymore, at least in the US--and it will lead to increased regulatory caution in the future, at least for a while, until people get complacent again. Because that's what's happened, we've gotten so used to regulatory agencies actually regulating things that we don't, as a society, feel any need to check up on them anymore.
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Liz Borkowski Posted 12:17 am
05 Sep 2007
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Sean Casten Posted 3:08 am
05 Sep 2007
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Nebraska-based ConAgra Foods Inc. will stop using the flavoring chemical diacetyl in its microwave popcorn products following the diagnosis of a Colorado man with a rare lung condition linked to exposure to the chemical, company spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said yesterday.
Weaver Popcorn Co., the nation's second-largest microwave popcorn producer behind ConAgra, announced last month that it discontinued the use of diacetyl in its products over concerns that the chemical posed a health hazard.
ConAgra's decision to discontinue use of the chemical was pre-empted by National Jewish Medical and Research Center lung specialist Cecile Rose's announcement that she was treating a 53-year-old patient for a condition called bronchiolitis obliterans.
Rose sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration in July informing them of her patient's diagnosis and the risks that home consumption of popcorn can pose.
Rose told the agencies that her patient had a similar clinical finding to affected factory workers but his only exposure to diacetyl was as "a heavy, daily consumer of butter flavored microwave popcorn" (Andrew Schneider, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 5).
"I said to him, 'This is a very weird question, but bear with me. But are you around a lot of popcorn?'" Rose said she asked her patient. "His jaw dropped and he said, 'How could you possibly know that about me? I am Mr. Popcorn. I love popcorn.'"
The man told Rose that he had eaten microwave popcorn at least twice per day for more than 10 years (Raquel Rutledge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sept. 5).
"When he broke open the bags, after the steam came out, he would often inhale the fragrance because he liked it so much," Rose said. "That's heated diacetyl, which we know from the workers' studies is the highest risk."
The diagnosis was based on measurements she made of the air quality in the patient's home that turned up diacetyl levels equal to what the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health found when it began investigating worker exposure in Midwest popcorn plants in 2001.
"He was really upset that he couldn't have it anymore," Rose said. "But he complied."
An FDA spokeswoman said that the agency is considering the case as part of a review of the safety of diacetyl, which adds the buttery taste to many microwave popcorns, including Orville Redenbacher and Act II (Gardniner Harris, New York Times, Sept. 5).
Bronchiolitis obliterans is a common lung condition among workers in microwaveable popcorn production plants who are exposed to diacetyl. Diacetyl is a flavoring agent used in artificial popcorn butter, dog food and other products. While previously thought to be non-lethal to consumers purchasing the end product, exposure to raw amounts of the chemical in its powder form are linked to the development of bronchiolitis obliterans.
Bronchiolitis obliterans is a lung condition that kills bronchioles, or crucial airways branching off the lungs like twigs at the end of the respiratory tree where oxygen enters the blood.
OSHA is investigating the chemical's health effects on workers and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) recently introduced a bill in the House Education and Labor Committee that would force OSHA to issue an interim final standard for worker exposure to diacetyl consistent with a NIOSH alert issued in 2004 (E&E Daily, June 19). -- RJD
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mcgerm Posted 11:28 am
05 Sep 2007
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Tom Philpott Posted 12:23 pm
05 Sep 2007
The real holdup, I suspect, is that the food industry has been struggling to concoct an alternate artificial butter flavoring -- a pretty lame reason for workers to lose their lungs.
Victual Reality
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mcgerm Posted 8:37 pm
05 Sep 2007
It is a regulatory issue that does not fit within our current framework.
Since diacetyl is THE natural compound that gives butter its flavor what do you replace it with. More complex chemistries that are not from butter, or natural butter concentrate that would still be full if diacetyl.
In the food industry there are many chemical hazards to workers that are not addressed because the regulatory framework says that they are GRAS materials.
Making the link for popcorn workers has been relatively easy due to the high concentrations involved, but damage for others happens over longer time scales. Noone in industry and government wants to open that can of worms, or they may need to regulate French chefs and people making spice blends with mustard powder.
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